No sign of children aboard ship

Associated Press

Published Tuesday, April 17, 2001

COTONOU, Benin -- A ship suspected of carrying child slaves docked here early Tuesday, but there was no immediate sign of such children. Benin claimed the wrong ship had been identified as the suspicious vessel.

Social Protection Minister Ramatou Baba Moussa said the Nigerian-registered MV Etireno, which was originally believed to have left Benin with the children, had been confused with a second ship, whose name and current location were unknown. She said the Etireno did not have any unaccompanied minors on board.

Her claim could not be independently verified.

Benin's claims drew questions from child welfare groups.

''I don't know what to think,'' said Nicolas Pron, a senior official with the U.N. children's fund in Benin. ''My main concern is that the kids are here and safe, and we will hear if that is the case.''

Pron did not rule out the possibility that the Etireno's captain, a Nigerian with a criminal past, could have somehow earlier unloaded his human cargo.

Dozens of women, a few men and a handful of children could be seen through the ship's passenger cabin windows, from which laundry was hanging outside, as the boat's Nigerian crew barked orders in English.

Benin officials said they still needed to speak to the passengers and crew before they could explain the confusion about the suspected slaves' whereabouts.

Moussa said the Etireno left the commercial capital, Cotonou, clandestinely more than a week ago. It was now returning with an unknown number of passengers -- but no children -- who had been refused entry in Gabon because they did not have the necessary travel documents, she said.

A second ship arrived in Gabon at about the same time with about 250 passengers on board -- many of them young victims of child traffickers -- she said. Moussa insisted that ship had nothing to do with Benin.

On Thursday, one of the ships was refused port in Douala, Cameroon, according to U.N. and Benin officials, but it was not immediately clear which one.

Despite international efforts to stamp out child trafficking, it remains a serious problem in West and Central Africa, where desperately poor parents are sometimes willing to give up their children for as little as $14 to smuggling rings that promise to educate them and find them jobs.

Boys are then typically resold to cotton and cocoa plantations for as much as $340 in countries such as Gabon and Ivory Coast. Girls often end up as domestic workers or prostitutes.